Fake News: Siouxsie & The Banshees NOT Playing Rebellion 2018

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

Somebody used prank site React365 to post an article titled "Siouxsie & the banshees playing rebellion 2018". The full text of the hoax read:

Breaking news , siouxsie & the banshees are set to briefly be reforming for the rebellion festival 2018 , further updates to come

The news was not confirmed on the line up page of the Rebellion festival taking place August 2-5th in Blackpool, UK. According to Songkick the last Siouxsie and The Banshees concert took place over 9 years ago an no upcoming ones are planned. The largest Siouxsie & The Banshees page of Facebook is also silent on the 'news'.

All that makes sense since the band was officially disbanded in 1996, with only a brief reunion in 2002 to promote their remastered back-catalogue during the "Seven-year itch" tour.

siouxsie.jpg

Also, React365 is a prank website where users can submit their own headline, description and photo to create realistic looking prank news articles. As with all stories on the site, this one also carried a disclaimer at the very end of the page which read:

This website is an entertainment website, news are created by users. These are humourous news, fantasy, fictional, that should not be seriously taken or as a source of information.

react365.jpg

Users don't even need to upload their own image, there is a built-in search function that will pull an appropriate image from Google image search.

The site is part of a larger network of prank sites all using the same basic layout but sometimes in different languages. It appears to be run by a Belgian company named Mediavibes or Media Vibes which is managed by a man named Nicolas Gouriou according to registration records.

So don't fall for this prank now that we've warned you about it! And that includes copies of it on other websites because this often happens when spoof news articles go viral. Always check the original source before sharing incredible news.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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